Teachings of Islam

After adopting the teachings of Islam, the attitude formed in the believer is that of gentleness. In Islam he discovers the reality that God is great (Allah-o-Akbar). This discovery brings to him the realization that greatness belongs to God alone; it does not belong to him or to anyone else. As a result, modesty, humility and tolerance are engendered within him. Having a temperament marked by such virtues, in particular, tolerance to the maximum degree is a necessary condition for adherence to the path of gentle behaviour.

Wealth is one of life’s necessities. But it is not life’s goal. If wealth is necessary to fulfill life’s material requirements, then it must be acquired as the mainstay of human existence. But if wealth is projected as life’s goal and its ever-increasing acquisition is considered the most important task, then it can become a source of great misery, which will destroy its seekers not only in this world but also in the Hereafter.

Islam, as we learn from the Qur’an and Hadith, is a religion of nature. Islam and nature being indeed each other’s counterparts. Nature loves cleanliness and abhors pollution: that is why this highly desirable feature of human existence — cleanliness — is one of the basic tenets of the Islamic faith.

Islam aims to build a peaceful society at all cost. It is because higher human objectives cannot be achieved in the absence of peaceful circumstances. The spiritual as well as moral progress of the individual is possible only in peaceful atmosphere. Hence the atmosphere of peace is essential for the building of good society. Academic research too is possible only in peaceful circumstances. The task of the propagation of truth too can be performed only in peaceful atmosphere.

Jihad means struggle. Any sincere effort for the cause of religion will be called Jihad. Man’s self leads him to evil. So waging war with the self is jihad. Sometimes friends or acquaintances pressurize you into engaging in activities, which are not right from the moral standpoint. At that time, refusing to yield such pressure and sticking firmly to an upright attitude are forms of jihad.

If you happen to be in an open field when it starts to rain, you hasten to find shelter. This is not cowardice, this is realism. Similarly, when there is an earthquake, you immediately leave your home for an open space. This too is not defeatism, but an acknowledgement of the reality of nature. Where some difficulty arises between man and nature, the solution to the problem lies only in acknowledgment, not in confrontation.

A perusal of the Qur’an followed by a study of latter-day Muslim history will reveal a blatant contradiction between the two—that of principle and practice. Where recent developments in some Muslim countries bespeak the culture of war, the Qur’an, on the contrary, is imbued with the spirit of tolerance. Its culture is not that of war, but of mercy.

One of the important qualities of human beings is contentment. For the construction of a better society, it is necessary that its members should never foster discontent. For, a society bereft of contentment will also be bereft of the atmosphere of mutual love.

The Prophet of Islam once observed: ‘That person earned salvation, who accepted Islam and was given provision (rizq) according to his needs and he was content with what God bestowed upon him (Sahih, Muslim).